System and method for anomaly detection and deduplication of electronic data feeds

ABSTRACT

A method includes receiving an electronic feed inventory file; creating a feed message including a batch of inventory messages based on the feed inventory file; placing the feed message in a message queue; performing validation one each of the inventory messages; generating a response to each of inventory messages that are invalidated; generating a first batch of response message including the responses to the inventory messages that are invalidated, the first batch of response message having the batch identification; publishing the first batch of response message to the message queue; updating a first database based on inventory messages that are validated; generating a responses to each of the inventory messages that are validated; generating a second batch of response message including the responses to the inventory messages that are validated, the second batch of response message having the batch identification; publishing the second batch of response message to the message queue; and updating a second database based on the first batch of response and second batch of response messages.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the priority to Indian ProvisionalApplication No.: 201811029690, filed Aug. 7, 2018, and U.S. ProvisionalApplication No.: 62/773,657, filed Nov. 30, 2018, contents of which areincorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to electronic data feeds, and morespecifically to systems and methods for anomaly detection anddeduplication data in electronic data feeds.

2. Introduction

With the growth of eCommerce, the number of interaction points fromvendors (e.g., suppliers and sellers) is continuously increasing. Thismay include a high volume of inventory transaction interactions betweeneCommerce systems and vendors. Due to the increase of eCommerce playersin the market, vendors may continuously strive to increase theirfootprint by engaging multiple eCommerce sites to sell their stockacross the sites of the multiple eCommerce players. Each of the sitesshould have the latest updated inventory count for each item. This willensure the customer is actually able to purchase items and receive anaccurate shipping date. To achieve this, vendors may replay all of theirtransactions to each of the eCommerce sites, irrespective of the sitewhich has actually conducted the transacted the inventory. In addition,vendors may rebroadcast the inventory for all the items of the vendorsover a specified interval to remove any anomalies in the interactionsacross sites.

There is a need for systems and methods to reduce or eliminate duplicatedata in electronic data feeds and between different inventory databases,the rebroadcasting of the same data in electronic feeds across networksto different inventory systems, and to eliminate anomalies in the data.This will improve the speed and efficiency of the systems for inventorystorage and update.

SUMMARY

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a system may comprise afeed gateway. The feed gateway may be configured to: receive a feedinventory file; create, based on the feed inventory file, a feedmessage, wherein: the feed message may include a batch of inventorymessages having a batch identification; each of the inventory messagesmay correspond to one stock keeping unit (SKU) of a batch of SKUs; andthe inventory message corresponding to the one SKU may include inventoryupdate information of the one SKU and lead days of the one SKU; andpublish the feed message to a messaging management unit. The messagingmanagement unit (MMU) may be configured to: receive the feed messagefrom the feed gateway; place the feed message in a message queue of theMMU; and send the feed message from the message queue to an inventorymanagement system (IMS) unit. The IMS unit may be configured to: receivethe feed message from the message queue of the MMU; perform validationone each of the inventory messages; generate a response to each ofinventory messages that are invalidated; generate a first responsemessage including the responses to the inventory messages that areinvalidated, the first response message having the batch identification;publish the first response message to the MMU; update a database of theIMS based on inventory messages that are validated; generate a responsesto each of the inventory messages that are validated; generate a secondresponse message including the responses to the inventory messages thatare validated, the second response message having the batchidentification; and publish the second message to the MMU. The MMU maybe further configured to: receive the first response message from theIMS; place the first response message in the message queue of the MMU;send the first response message to the feed gateway; receive the secondresponse message from the IMS; place the second response message in themessage queue of the MMU; and send the second response message to thefeed gateway. The feed gateway may be further configured to: receive thefirst response message from the MMU; receive the second response messagefrom the MMU; and update a database of the feed gateway based on thefirst response and second response messages.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a method for performingconcepts disclosed herein can include: receiving a feed inventory file;creating a feed message based on the feed inventory file, wherein: thefeed message includes a batch of inventory messages having a batchidentification; each of the inventory messages corresponds to one stockkeeping unit (SKU) of a batch of SKUs; and the inventory messagecorresponding to the one SKU includes inventory update information ofthe one SKU and lead days of the one SKU; placing the feed message in amessage queue; performing validation one each of the inventory messages;generating a response to each of inventory messages that areinvalidated; generating a first response message including the responsesto the inventory messages that are invalidated, the first responsemessage having the batch identification; publishing the first responsemessage to the message queue; updating a first database based oninventory messages that are validated; generating a responses to each ofthe inventory messages that are validated; generating a second responsemessage including the responses to the inventory messages that arevalidated, the second response message having the batch identification;publishing the second response message to the message queue; andupdating a second database based on the first response and secondresponse messages.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium configured as disclosed herein can haveinstructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, causethe computing device to perform operations which include: receiving afeed inventory file; creating a feed message based on the feed inventoryfile, wherein: the feed message includes a batch of inventory messageshaving a batch identification; each of the inventory messagescorresponds to one stock keeping unit (SKU) of a batch of SKUs; and theinventory message corresponding to the one SKU includes inventory updateinformation of the one SKU and lead days of the one SKU; placing thefeed message in a message queue; performing validation one each of theinventory messages; generating a response to each of inventory messagesthat are invalidated; generating a first response message including theresponses to the inventory messages that are invalidated, the firstresponse message having the batch identification; publishing the firstresponse message to the message queue; updating a first database basedon inventory messages that are validated; generating a responses to eachof the inventory messages that are validated; generating a secondresponse message including the responses to the inventory messages thatare validated, the second response message having the batchidentification; publishing the second response message to the messagequeue; and updating a second database based on the first response andsecond response messages.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forthin the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosedprinciples. The features and advantages of the disclosure can berealized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinationsparticularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and otherfeatures of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from thefollowing description and appended claims, or can be learned by thepractice of the principles set forth herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system of vendors, eCommerce player'ssite, and customers, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system of updating vendors inventory ona eCommerce player's site, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary system of updating vendorsinventory on a eCommerce player's site, according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrate an exemplary method of updating vendors inventory on aeCommerce player's site, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system that may be used tocomprise the above systems in FIGS. 1-3, and to perform the method ofFIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media configuredaccording to this disclosure may be capable of anomaly detection anddeduplication of electronic data feeds. Although described below in thecontext of eCommerce, embodiments of the invention are equallyapplicable in other contexts. As mentioned, inventory transactions maybe duplicated in more than one interactions between vendors andeCommerce sites. That is, the item inventory may not change between oneor more interactions between the vendors and the eCommerce sites. Suchduplication may result in computing resource inefficiency and slowerprocessing of transactions. In addition, anomalies may occur in iteminventory feed. The anomalies may include item inventory feed may havemissing mandatory attributes, and that data length for attribute ofentries of item inventory feed may be more than a specified limit.Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media configuredaccording to this disclosure may resolve at least the above-mentionedproblems. For example, based on the systems and methods disclosedherein, 70% of an electronic inventory data feed may be identified asrebroadcast feed, thus substantially reducing computing resourceconsumption.

As used herein, the “site” may refer to a physical site (e.g., abrick-and-mortar retail store) or an online website. FIG. 1 illustratesan exemplary system 100 of vendors, eCommerce sites, and customers,according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in thesystem 100, one or more vendors 102 a . . . 102 n may sell theirproducts on one or more eCommerce sites 106 a . . . 106 n. The one ormore vendors 102 a . . . 102 n may be independent of one another. TheeCommerce sites 106 a . . . 106 n may be independent of one another.Customers 108 a . . . 108 n may independently purchase products from theone or more eCommerce sites. The customers, the eCommerce sites, and thevendors may communicate via communications channels 110. Thecommunication channels may be any wireless-based and/or wiredcommunications channels.

When a customer places an order for products from one of the eCommercesites, the vendor whose products are ordered may send out an inventorytransaction update to all the eCommerce sites, including the eCommercesite on which the order is placed. Many inventory transaction updatesmay be transmitted in a short period of time. Such inventory transactionupdate messages may be out of order during the transmission. Forexample, an old message may be received earlier than a newer messagefrom an eCommerce site, thus, the eCommerce site may not receive aproper message sequence. In addition, the vendor may rebroadcast thesame message during a specified time of period to ensure all theeCommerce sites receive the message. This may result in duplicatemessages being received by the eCommerce sites. The above problems maylead to the inefficiency of message processing, and waste of computingresources. The systems and methods disclosed herein may overcome theabove problems.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure may be capable of handlinginventory transactions between vendors and eCommerce sites, for example,updating item inventory of the vendors across the eCommerce sites. Suchhandling may include detecting an inventory feed which has beenpublished out-of-sequence due to transmission delay across systems. Asused herein, the inventory feed may include any updating or changeinformation on the inventory items from the vendors. For example, stockkeeping unit (SKU) of inventory items may be included in the inventoryfeed, along with quantity and timestamps of the inventory items. Thehandling may further include detecting inventory feed which has beenpublished repeatedly without any change. For example, an inventory feedmay simply include inventory items and related information without anychanges made to the items.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, systems, methods, andcomputer-readable storage media configured according to this disclosuremay be capable of scaling horizontally in terms of growth of the vendorstransaction volume along with detection of inventory rebroadcast fromsuppliers or sellers. For example, the system may be scaled to handleinventory transaction interactions with a continued growth of a numberof vendors who offer their products on multiple eCommerce sites.

Various specific embodiments of the disclosure are described in detailbelow. While specific implementations are described, it should beunderstood that this is done for illustration purposes only. Othercomponents and configurations may be used without parting from thespirit and scope of the disclosure, and can be implemented incombinations of the variations provided. These variations shall bedescribed herein as the various embodiments are set forth.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system 200 for updating vendors'inventory on an eCommerce site, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The system 200 may comprise a feed gateway 210, amessage management unit (MMU) 230, and an inventory management system(IMS) unit 250. The system 200 may further comprise one or more wired orwireless communication networks through which the feed gateway 210, theMMU 230, and the IMS 250 can communicate with each other.

The feed gateway 210, the MMU 230, and the IMS unit 250, may eachcomprise computing hardware, computing software, or a combinationthereof to implement the desired functions and features. In addition,the feed gateway 210, the MMU 230, and the IMS unit 250 may embody aserver cluster with each of the feed gateway 210, the MMU 230, and theIMS unit 250 operates on one server. The feed gateway 210, the MMU 230,and the IMS unit 250 may embody a cloud computing environment. Further,a portion or whole of the system 200 may be configured to operate bydifferent parties. For example, the feed gateway 210 may be operated byone or more vendors, the IMS 250 may be operated by an eCommerce playerwho sells different products of the one or more vendors, and the MMU 230may be a cloud computing device.

The feed gateway 210 may be configured to receive an electronic datafeed, such as a feed inventory file 212 (also referred to as a vendorfile). The feed inventory file 212 may be provided by the vendor, andmay comprise any information related to inventory updates and changes,such as item name, item identification (ID), item quantity, item status(e.g., in stock or out of stock), timestamp indicating when theinventory information is updated or changed, lead days of the item, itemdistributor identifier, etc. The item ID may be any identification toidentify an item of the vendor's inventory, and may vary based ondifferent vendors. For example, the item ID may comprise SKUs, universalproduct codes (UPCs), or a combination thereof. The lead days may referto the number of days required for an item to be shipped from a vendorto a purchaser of the item. The lead days may include the time requiredto ship the item from the vendor to the eCommerce site and from theeCommerce site to the purchaser. The lead days may be an exact number(e.g., 5 business days) or a range (e.g., from 5 to 7 business days).

The feed gateway 210 may create, based on the feed inventory file 212, afeed message 214. The feed message 214 may include a batch of inventorymessages having a batch identification (ID). The batch ID can be anidentifier used for all the communications between the feed gateway 210,the MMU 230, and the IMS unit 250. Each of the inventory messages maycorrespond to one SKU of a batch of SKUs. The inventory messagecorresponding to the one SKU may include inventory update information ofthe SKU and lead days of the SKU. The batch of inventory messages mayfurther have a specified batch size, for example, 2000 inventorymessages.

The feed message 214 may be created based on one feed inventory file, ormay be based on more than one feed inventory file. For example, if afeed inventory file includes information on less than a specified batchsize (e.g., 1000 inventory messages), the feed message 214 may begenerated based on more than one feed inventory files for improvingsystem performance. Likewise, if a feed inventory file includesinformation on greater than a specified batch size (e.g., greater than2000 inventory messages), the feed message 214 may be generated based ona portion of the feed inventory file.

The feed gateway 210 may publish (216) or post the feed message 214 tothe MMU 230. The publishing may be done by a command (e.g., updateInventory Request message) calling the MMU via an applicationprogramming interface (API).

The feed gateway 210 may further process (218) responses received fromthe MMU 230, which will be described later in more details. For example,the feed gateway 210 may read the responses and update its databasebased on the responses.

The MMU 230 may embody any messaging management module, message queue,or application. For example, the MMU 230 may be a message streamingplatform that is configured to publish and subscribe to streams ofmessage records, store streams of message records in a fault-tolerantdurable way, and process streams of message records as they occur. TheMMU 230 may be configured to construct real-time streaming datapipelines that reliably get data between systems or applications.

In some embodiments, the MMU 230 may run as a cluster on one or moreservers that may span multiple datacenters. The MMU 230 may beconfigured to store streams of message records in categories that may bereferred to as topics. Each record may comprise a key, a value, and atimestamp. The MMU 230 may have APIs that allows to publish a stream ofmessage records to one or more topics. The MMU 230 may also have APIsthat allows to subscribe to one or more topics. The MMU 230 may furtherbe configured to consume an input stream from one or more topics andproduce an output stream to one or more output topics.

The MMU 230 may be configured to receive the feed message 214 from thefeed gateway 210, and place the feed message 214 in a message queue ofthe MMU 230. The MMU 230 may further be configured to send the feedmessage 214 from the message queue to the IMS unit 250.

The IMS unit 250 may receive or pull the feed message 214 from themessage queue of the MMU 230. The inventory messages (block 252) maythen be validated. The validation may also compare the information inthe inventory message with the information stored in a database of theIMS 250. For example, SKUs, UPCs, item names, item quantity, timestampof inventory change, etc. may be compared to determine if theinformation is changed. A “valid message” may be an inventory messagethat includes proper and changed information from the information storedon the IMS 250. The validation may also check that the message is in theproper format and includes any required fields.

For example, if an inventory message is identified to include unchangedinformation compared to the information stored on the IMS 250, thisinventory message may be categorized as a duplicate message (i.e., amessage with no change). If an inventory message is identified toinclude improper information, this inventory message may be categorizedas a failed message. Examples of the failed inventory messages mayinclude inventory messages with old timestamps, invalid offer, or offershipping information that does not exist.

The failed and no-change messages are referred to as invalid inventorymessage 254 that may be grouped into a batch by the IMS 250. The batchmay have a same batch ID as the corresponding feed message 214. Aresponse to each of the invalid inventory messages may be generated bythe IMS 250. Those responses may be batched as a batch message 256 andmay be published to the message queue in the MMU 230. After receivingthe batch message 256, the MMU 230 may push the batch message 256 to thefeed gateway 210, or the feed gateway may subscribe to the batch message256.

The response to the invalid inventory message may include informationwhy the message is not proper. This information may be a status code, acategory description, an action to be taken, or impact if the action isnon taken in prescribed way. The status code may indicate a status of aninventory message, for example, “data error.” The category descriptionmay detail the data error, for example, “the inventory message has anold timestamp.” The action to be taken may refer to what action isrequired for the inventory message, for example, “no retry needed.” Theimpact if the action is not taken in prescribed way may refer to animpact if the data error is not handled by the action to be taken, forexample, “if same batch is retried again then it will be rejectedagain.”

The valid inventory messages are processed by the IMS 250 and a databaseof the IMS 250 may be updated based on the valid inventory messages(block 258). The IMS 250 may generate a response with a confirmation(e.g., success) to each of the valid inventory messages (block 260). Theresponse messages may be grouped into a batch of response messages 260by the IMS 250. The batch of response messages 260 may have a same batchID as the corresponding feed message 214. The response to each ofinventory messages that are validated may include what actions have beenperformed based on the valid inventory message. Those responses as abatch of message may be published to the message queue in the MMU 230.After receiving the batch of response message 260, the MMU 230 may pushthe batch of response message 260 to the feed gateway 210, or the feedgateway 210 may subscribe to the batch of response message 260.

When the feed gateway 210 receives the batch of response message 256including responses to the invalidated inventory messages from the MMUand the batch of response message 260 including responses to thevalidated inventory messages from the MMU 230, the feed gateway 210 mayupdate a database of the feed gateway 210 based on the batch of responsemessage 256 and the batch of response messages 260 (block 218). Forexample, when an inventory message is identified as including invalidattribute, the response to this inventory message may includingcorrecting the invalid attribute in feed at the feed gateway 210. Ifcorrections are done at the feed gateway 210, then the feed gateway 210may ensure that latest inventory of those SKU is taken with latesttimestamp before retrying the batch of invalid inventory messages.

In some embodiments, the feed gateway 210 may be further configured tosend the batch of response messages 256 and the batch of responsemessages 260 to the vendor. For example, some actions (e.g., correctingerrors in an invalid inventory message) included in the response to aninvalid inventory message may be performed by the vendor. If correctionsare made by the vendor, then the vendor timestamp should be current withmost recent inventory information for SKU. The corrected inventorymessages may be re-submitted by the vendor.

In some embodiments, at any point during the backend processing (IMSprocessing) if an exception (i.e., a system error) is encountered, thesystem may try to address the system errors a specified of times. If thesystem error cannot be addressed after several attempts, the completetransaction may need to be rolled back.

For example, the IMS 250 may retry multiple times to correct any systemerrors internally before throwing this exception back as response to thefeed gateway 210. The feed gateway 210 may retry only those records in abatch which failed with system error. The feed gateway 210 may maintainthe same feed timestamp as earlier. If it is not possible for the feedgateway 210 to retry only failed records with system errors, then updatefor these SKUs may be sent by the vendor with latest supply andtimestamp information in the next feed. If nothing is performed withrespect to the system errors, then the old supply information may beoverridden by the latest supply information.

FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary system 300 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. Some functions and features of thesystem 300 may overlap with the functions and features of the system 200shown in FIG. 2. Thus some details may be referred to in the descriptionof the system 200. The system 300 may comprise a feed gateway 310, a MMU320, which may be CD Kafka platform, and an IMS unit 330. The system 300may further comprise one or more wired or wireless communicationnetworks through which the feed gateway 310, the MMU 320, and the IMS330 can communicate with each other.

The feed gateway 310, the MMU 320, and the IMS unit 330, may eachcomprise computing hardware, computing software, or a combinationthereof to implement the desired functions and features. In addition,the feed gateway 310, the MMU 320, and the IMS unit 330 may embody aserver cluster with each of the feed gateway 310, the MMU 320, and theIMS unit 330 operates on one server. The feed gateway 310, the MMU 320,and the IMS unit 330 may embody a cloud computing environment. Further,a portion or whole of the system 300 may be configured to operate bydifferent parties. For example, the feed gateway 310 may be operated byone or more vendors, the IMS 330 may be operated by an eCommerce sitewho sells products of the one or more vendors, and the MMU 320 may be acloud computing device.

The feed gateway 310 may be configured to receive a feed file (block312). The feed file 312 may be provided by the vendor, and may compriseany information related to inventory updates and changes, such as itemname, item identification (ID), item quantity, item status (e.g., instock or out of stock), timestamp indicating when the item is updated orchanged, lead days of the item, etc.

The feed gateway 310 may create, based on the feed file, Java scriptobject notion (JSON) messages in a batch having a batch identification(ID). Each of the JSON messages may correspond to one SKU of a batch ofSKUs in the feed file. The JSON message corresponding to the SKU mayinclude inventory update information of the SKU and lead days of theSKU. The batch of JSON messages may further have a specified batch size,for example, 1000 inventory messages.

The feed gateway 310 may publish or post the JSON messages to the MMU(CD Kafka) 320. The publishing may be done by a command calling the MMUvia an application programming interface (API).

The MMU 320 may be configured to place the JSON messages in a messagequeue of the MMU 320. The MMU 320 may be configured to store streams ofmessage records in categories that may be referred to as topics. Eachrecord may comprise a key, a value, and a timestamp. The MMU 320 mayfurther be configured to send the JSON messages from the message queueto the IMS unit 320 upon subscription by the IMS unit 320.

The IMS unit 330 may be configured to consume the JSON messages (block332) received from the message queue of the MMU 320. The IMS may iterateeach of the JSON messages, and perform validation and filtering based ontimestamp and product supply information contained in the JSON message,details of which are provided in the above description of the system200.

The IMS unit 330 may generate responses to failures/no change requests.The responses may be batched and pushed to the message queue of the MMU320 (block 336). The batch of responses to the failures/no changerequests may have a batch ID same as the batch ID of the batch of JSONmessages. The definition of the failures/no change requests may refer tothe definition in the description of the system 200.

The batch of responses to the failures/no change requests, may include,but are not limited to, a status code, a category description, an actionto be taken, and impact if the action is on taken in prescribed way.

Via the iteration of the JSON messages, a batch of valid JSON messagesmay be created (block 338). The valid JSON messages may then beprocessed by the IMS 330 (block 340) and a database of the IMS 330 maybe updated based on the batch of valid JSON messages. For example, aninventory of products is updated in the database to reflect thetransacted inventory.

The IMS 330 may generate responses to the valid JSON messages (block342). The responses may be batched and pushed to the message queue ofthe MMU 320 (block 342). The batch of responses to the valid JSONmessages may have a batch ID same as the batch ID of the batch of JSONmessages. The response to each of the valid JSON messages may includewhat actions have been performed based on the valid JSON message. Thoseresponses as a batch message may be published to the message queue inthe MMU 330. After receiving the batch message, the MMU 330 may push thebatch message to the feed gateway 310, or the feed gateway 310 maysubscribe to the batch of responses.

When the feed gateway 310 receives the batch of responses to thefailure/no change requests and the batch of responses to the valid JSONmessages, the feed gateway 310 may update a database of the feed gateway310 based on the two batches of responses (block 314).

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary method 400 of anomaly detection anddeduplication of electronic data feeds, according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure. The method 400 may be implemented in the abovedisclosed systems, may include the following steps, and thus somedetails may not be repeated herein.

At step 402, an electronic feed inventory file is received. The feedinventory file may be received from a vendor. The feed inventory filemay include records comprising item name, item identification (ID), itemquantity, item status, item distributor identifier, timestamp indicatingwhen the item is updated or changed, or lead days of the item.

At step 404, a feed message may be generated based on the feed inventoryfile. The feed message may include a batch of inventory messages havinga batch identification. Each of the inventory messages may correspond toa SKU of a batch of SKUs. The inventory message corresponding to one SKUmay include inventory update information of the one SKU and lead days ofthe one SKU.

At step 406, the feed message may be placed in a message queue. Themessages in the queue may be categorized as topics.

At step 408, validation of each inventory message is performed. Each ofthe inventory messages may be iterated to be categorized as aninvalidated inventory message or a validated inventory message, detailsof which may be referred to the descriptions of the above systems. Forexample, an invalidated inventory message may include invalid item ornode messages along with items which do not have inventory supply changein a batch having same batch ID. Herein, the node may refer to adistributor identifier (e.g., an ID associated to location wheninventory is stocked.)

At step 410, a response to each of inventory messages that areinvalidated may be generated. The response may include status code, whatactions need to be taken for correcting errors, etc. as describedbefore.

At step 412, a first response message including the responses to theinventory messages that are invalidated may be generated. The firstresponse message may be assigned a batch ID same as the ID of the feedbatch message.

At step 414, the first response message may be published to the messagequeue.

At step 416, a first database may be updated based on inventory messagesthat are validated. The validated inventory messages are processedaccording to information contained in the validated inventory messagesto update the first database, for example, an inventory database.

At step 418, a responses to each of the inventory messages that arevalidated may be generated. The response may include informationindicating that what actions have been performed based on theinvalidated inventory messages.

At step 420, the responses to the validated inventory messages may begrouped into a second response batch message. The second response batchmessage may be assigned a batch ID same as the ID of the feed batchmessage.

At step 422, the second response batch message may be published to themessage queue.

At step 424, a second database may be updated based on the firstresponse and second response batch messages. The second database may bea database recording what responses to the inventory messages have beenperformed.

The method 400 may further comprise sending the first response andsecond response batch messages to the vendor. The vendor may berequested to perform some actions based on the first response and secondresponse batch messages, for example, correcting some errors containedin the inventory messages, resubmitting inventory messages, updating thevendor's database, etc.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may also be providedhaving instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device,may cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:receiving a feed inventory file; creating a feed message based on thefeed inventory file, wherein: the feed message includes a batch ofinventory messages having a batch identification; each of the inventorymessages corresponds to one SKU of a batch of SKUs; and the inventorymessage corresponding to the one SKU includes inventory updateinformation of the one SKU and lead days of the one SKU; placing thefeed message in a message queue; performing validation one each of theinventory messages; generating a response to each of inventory messagesthat are invalidated; generating a first response message including theresponses to the inventory messages that are invalidated, the firstresponse message having the batch identification; publishing the firstresponse message to the message queue; updating a first database basedon inventory messages that are validated; generating a responses to eachof the inventory messages that are validated; generating a secondresponse message including the responses to the inventory messages thatare validated, the second response message having the batchidentification; publishing the second response message to the messagequeue; and updating a second database based on the first response andsecond response messages. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium having instructions stored which, when executed by a computingdevice, may cause the computing device to perform further operations asdescripted in the above systems and method.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system 500 that may be used tocomprise the above systems in FIGS. 1-3, and to perform the method ofFIG. 4. With reference to FIG. 5, the exemplary system 500 can include aprocessing unit (CPU or processor) 520 and a system bus 510 that couplesvarious system components including the system memory 530 such as readonly memory (ROM) 540 and random access memory (RAM) 550 to theprocessor 520. The system 500 can include a cache of high speed memoryconnected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part ofthe processor 520. The system 500 copies data from the memory 530 and/orthe storage device 560 to the cache for quick access by the processor520. In this way, the cache provides a performance boost that avoidsprocessor 520 delays while waiting for data. These and other modules cancontrol or be configured to control the processor 520 to perform variousactions. Other system memory 530 may be available for use as well. Thememory 530 can include multiple different types of memory with differentperformance characteristics. It can be appreciated that the disclosuremay operate on a computing system 500 with more than one processor 520or on a group or cluster of computing devices networked together toprovide greater processing capability. The processor 520 can include anygeneral purpose processor and a hardware module or software module, suchas module 1 562, module 2 564, and module 3 566 stored in storage device560, configured to control the processor 520 as well as aspecial-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporatedinto the actual processor design. The processor 520 may essentially be acompletely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores orprocessors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processormay be symmetric or asymmetric.

The system bus 510 may be any of several types of bus structuresincluding a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and alocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. A basicinput/output (BIOS) stored in ROM 540 or the like, may provide the basicroutine that helps to transfer information between elements within thecomputing system 500, such as during start-up. The computing system 500further includes storage devices 560 such as a hard disk drive, amagnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive or the like. Thestorage device 560 can include software modules 562, 564, 566 forcontrolling the processor 520. Other hardware or software modules arecontemplated. The storage device 560 is connected to the system bus 510by a drive interface. The drives and the associated computer-readablestorage media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputing system 500. In one aspect, a hardware module that performs aparticular function includes the software component stored in a tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium in connection with the necessaryhardware components, such as the processor 520, bus 510, output device570 as display, and so forth, to carry out the function. In anotheraspect, the system can use a processor and computer-readable storagemedium to store instructions which, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to perform a method or other specific actions. Thebasic components and appropriate variations are contemplated dependingon the type of device, such as whether the system 500 is a small,handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computer server.

Although the exemplary embodiment described herein employs the hard diskas the storage device 560, other types of computer-readable media whichcan store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, cartridges,random access memories (RAMs) 550, and read only memory (ROM) 540, mayalso be used in the exemplary operating environment. Tangiblecomputer-readable storage media, computer-readable storage devices, orcomputer-readable memory devices, expressly exclude media such astransitory waves, energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, andsignals per se.

To enable user interaction with the computing system 500, an inputdevice 590 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. An outputdevice 570 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanismsknown to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodalsystems enable a user to provide multiple types of input to communicatewith the computing system 500. The communications interface 580generally governs and manages the user input and system output. There isno restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement andtherefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improvedhardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

The concepts disclosed herein can also be used to improve the computingsystems which are performing, or enabling the performance, of thedisclosed concepts. For example, by detecting the failure and no changeinventory request messages, further processing of such invalidedinventory messages can be prevented, thus significantly reducingcomputing resources consumption. Further, by returning those invalidatedinventory messages back to the vendor, rebroadcasting of suchinvalidated inventory messages is inhibited, therefore significantlyincreasing processing efficiency of inventory updating requests.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way ofillustration only and should not be construed to limit the scope of thedisclosure. Various modifications and changes may be made to theprinciples described herein without following the example embodimentsand applications illustrated and described herein, and without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

We claim:
 1. A system, comprising: a feed gateway, configured to:receive an electronic feed inventory file; create, based on the feedinventory file, a feed message, wherein: the feed message includes abatch of inventory messages having a batch identification; each of theinventory messages corresponds to one stock keeping unit (SKU) of abatch of SKUs; and the inventory message corresponding to the one SKUincludes inventory update information of the one SKU and lead days ofthe one SKU; and publish the feed message to a messaging management unit(MMU); and the MMU, configured to: receive the feed message from thefeed gateway; place the feed message in a message queue of the MMU; andsend the feed message from the message queue to an inventory managementsystem (IMS) unit; and the IMS unit, configured to: receive the feedmessage from the message queue of the MMU; perform validation on each ofthe inventory messages; generate a response to each of inventorymessages that are invalidated; generate a first batch of responsemessage including the responses to the inventory messages that areinvalidated, the first batch of response message having the batchidentification; publish the first batch of response message to the MMU;update a database of the IMS based on inventory messages that arevalidated; generate a response to each of the inventory messages thatare validated; generate a second batch of response message including theresponses to the inventory messages that are validated, the second batchof response message having the batch identification; and publish thesecond batch of response message to the MMU, wherein: the MMU is furtherconfigured to: receive the first batch of response message from the IMS;place the first batch of response message in the message queue of theMMU; send the first batch of response message to the feed gateway;receive the batch of second response message from the IMS; place thesecond batch of response message in the message queue of the MMU; andsend the second batch of response message to the feed gateway, and thefeed gateway is further configured to: receive the first batch ofresponse message from the MMU; receive the second batch of responsemessage from the MMU; and update a database of the feed gateway based onthe first batch of response and second batch of response messages. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the feed inventory file is received froma vendor.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the feed inventory fileincludes item name, item identification (ID), item quantity, itemstatus, timestamp indicating when the item is updated or changed, orlead days of the item.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the responsesto the inventory messages that are invalidated include error codesassociated with the inventory messages that are invalidated.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the responses to the inventory messages thatare validated include the updating of the database of the IMS.
 6. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein the feed gateway is further configured tosend the first batch of response and second batch of response messagesto the vendor.
 7. A method, comprising: receiving an electronic feedinventory file; creating a feed message based on the feed inventoryfile, wherein: the feed message includes a batch of inventory messageshaving a batch identification; each of the inventory messagescorresponds to one stock keeping unit (SKU) of a batch of SKUs; and theinventory message corresponding to the one SKU includes inventory updateinformation of the one SKU and lead days of the one SKU; placing thefeed message in a message queue; performing validation one each of theinventory messages; generating a response to each of inventory messagesthat are invalidated; generating a first batch of response messageincluding the responses to the inventory messages that are invalidated,the first batch of response message having the batch identification;publishing the first batch of response message to the message queue;updating a first database based on inventory messages that arevalidated; generating a response to each of the inventory messages thatare validated; generating a second batch of response message includingthe responses to the inventory messages that are validated, the secondbatch of response message having the batch identification; publishingthe second batch of response message to the message queue; and updatinga second database based on the first batch of response and second batchof response messages.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the feedinventory file is received from a vendor.
 9. The method of claim 7,wherein the feed inventory file includes item name, item identification(ID), item quantity, item status, timestamp indicating when the item isupdated or changed, or lead days of the item.
 10. The method of claim 7,wherein the responses to the inventory messages that are invalidatedinclude error codes associated with the inventory messages that areinvalidated.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the responses to theinventory messages that are validated include the updating of the firstdatabase.
 12. The method of claim 8, the method further comprising,sending the first batch of response and second batch of responsemessages to the vendor.
 13. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium having instructions stored which, when executed by a computingdevice, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:receiving an electronic feed inventory file; creating a feed messagebased on the feed inventory file, wherein: the feed message includes abatch of inventory messages having a batch identification; each of theinventory messages corresponds to one stock keeping unit (SKU) of abatch of SKUs; and the inventory message corresponding to the one SKUincludes inventory update information of the one SKU and lead days ofthe one SKU; placing the feed message in a message queue; performingvalidation one each of the inventory messages; generating a response toeach of inventory messages that are invalidated; generating a firstbatch of response message including the responses to the inventorymessages that are invalidated, the first batch of response messagehaving the batch identification; publishing the first batch of responsemessage to the message queue; updating a first database based oninventory messages that are validated; generating a response to each ofthe inventory messages that are validated; generating a second batch ofresponse message including the responses to the inventory messages thatare validated, the second batch of response message having the batchidentification; publishing the second batch of response message to themessage queue; and updating a second database based on the first batchof response and second batch of response messages.
 14. The medium ofclaim 13, wherein the feed inventory file is received from a vendor. 15.The medium of claim 13, wherein the feed inventory file includes itemname, item identification (ID), item quantity, item status, timestampindicating when the item is updated or changed, or lead days of theitem.
 16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the responses to the inventorymessages that are invalidated include error codes associated with theinventory messages that are invalidated.
 17. The medium of claim 13,wherein the responses to the inventory messages that are validatedinclude the updating of the first database.
 18. The medium of claim 14,the operations further comprising, sending the first batch of responseand second batch of response messages to the vendor.